Brake painting

[THERB3]

Lucky for some people that we have best mates as mechanics soo he removed the calipers for me which he is qualified to do so and I just prepared and sprayed them. Then at the end he reinstalled them and bleed my lines.
I am sure someone on this forum can give you a guide on how to remove.
Just be sure to post up pics once completed.
The brand of paint I used were K&H or VHT caliper paint.

[Woodduck]

Soooo i attempted this on the weekend just gone. Was a bit of a disaster, but the end result was actualy really good (so far).

I removed the calipers, but not completly, just so i could sit them away from the rotor, but didnt havto to bleed the lines. I taped, cardborded and clothed up everything i could see (and still managed to get overspray..go figure).

I degreased, scrubed, even did a very light sand of all of the calipers. I followed the instructions on the paint and left half hour intervals between each coat of paint (ended up doing 3 with a very light final coat). I then left them about 3 hours before putting on the clear coat. Now the paint was touch dry when i was ready to put on the clear coat.

I had subaru brake caliper stickers to put on (underneath the clear coat). I ordered white ones, and specified this with the seller on at least 3 occasions. I removed the top layer of the sticker only to discover they are friggin "chrome" stickers.

So I hadto go without the stickers. I put on a coat of clear coat, and left it 30mins (can said 20). I did another coat and then left it over night. Saturday came and it wasnt dry. Figured it was a pretty cold night, id just leave the shed doors open and let them dry during the day. Sunday came, still not dry. Bought the hair dryers and the fans out to try to assist. MONDAY CAME, STILL NOT DRY! So me and me mate decided we would prolli havto repaint them anyway, so we put them back on the car, and drove slowly out of the shed and took it for a drive. We drove (urban driving) for about and hour, in which i used the brakes quite a bit. The paint actually stuck and the brakes looked fantastic! But when i get up and go to leave for work this morninging i felt the brakes, and they are STILL NOT DRYYY????!?!?!?! Any ideas because its driving me insane!?

[teK--]

I would have thought that putting the brakes through one heat cycle is enough to bake the paint. Well it did for me anyway when I painted the calipers on my old car; it stunk like shit for the first 2 cycles but then the paint was hard as rock.

Bear in mind that it was the second time I painted the calipers on that car. The first time I did poor preparation and the paint eventually came off after about 2 years, but the second time I went crazy scrubbing with the wire brush and lightly sanding, then I used a coat of metal primer before I put 2 coats of the VHT brake caliper paint on. The second time the paint lasted for about 5 years before it started blistering and coming off again.

[wassell2381]

When i painted mine i just:
- used terps to remove any grease or dust

- primer coat over the calipers and hubs (be generous)

- 2 coats of heatproof caliper paint on the calipers in the desired colour. Have a rag with terps handy for when you get paint on the hubs to clean off. I also used thread tape to make sure that the threads kept free of paint.

- Covered calipers with newspaper gave the hubs a go with heat proof black for a couple of coats

- and finally went over the whole lot with a heat proof clear enamel which is like a resin that seals the whole job + makes everything nice and shiny.

-------The only bit of advice i could give is to wait over night before putting the wheels back on after painting the hubs otherwise they stick and its a paint in the ass--------
Good luck and keep us posted about the results!

Dan

[Woodduck]

Yeah thats what i did.....i used grease and wax remover, water and normal degreaser to get all the crap off along with a very light sand on the outward pointing face. I left it 3 nights (4 days) to dry and it didnt! I only did 2 coats of clear coat. Iv since drivin on them today and they are STILL not dry, and the clear coat has now bubbled from the heat (figured it would). Looks like il be taking the paint off this weekend and NOT clear coating this time. GRRR! Im thinking a bad batch of clear coat or somthing? I used VHT (or whatever the brand is) brake and caliper paint and the same brand brake and caliper clear coat. Followed all the instructions and its fooked!

[THERB3]

Hey,

In the picture I posted earlier mine are not clear coated. The question I want to ask is why did you clear coat them. You dont have to.......

[Woodduck]

I just thought it would be a better look, and give protection to the paint...but screw it! All its done is been a pain in the bum so im guna strip it all off, and ONLY do it in paint...

[THERB3]

Yeah my man,

I can show you some brake calipers that my mate did about 3 years ago and they still look brand new. He also drives the car everyday....
All he did prepared scrub and then K&H removel, let dry then paint 3 coats.

Good luck my man I know you are pissed off cause things didn't go to plan.

I hate when that happens.

[wassell2381]

ohh shibby mine didnt turn out that good either. The paints melted a bit but they still look better then the rusty stock look!

[Sentinel]

ohh shibby mine didnt turn out that good either. The paints melted a bit but they still look better then the rusty stock look!

Did you put clear coat on?

[wassell2381]

yep it must just screw everything up. When i did it to my last car i didnt put a clear coat on and its lasted better than this time. I thought that a clear coat would help but it didnt

[THERB3]

Well you better have the weekend free cause I beleive you are going to work on them all day.

Scrub them clean them and re-paint them.

Good Luck my man.